DRAM module makers report that Hynix Semiconductor is requiring customers to buy three DDR die for every SDRAM die purchased, hoping to leverage the current short supply of SDRAM to sell off its DDR amid feeble demand and oversupply. The tables have turned on DDR. Only a few months ago, DRAM suppliers were requiring customers to buy SDRAM with every DDR purchase. SDRAM demand comes primarily from developing countries, as most Western countries have shifted to using DDR.

Organic polymers are expected to play a larger role soon in enabling flexible color displays for computers, communications devices and consumer electronics. Hopes run high that big-time players, buoyed by a major infusion of research cash, will cooperate to help push organic light-emitting diodes out the door in volume in the next few years. Today, OLEDs account for a scant $100 million piece of the $31 billion flat-panel display market. But DisplaySearch (Austin, Texas) projects OLEDs to grow to $2.8 billion by 2007.

Micron Technology has condemned the move by South Korean banks to provide financing to Hynix Semiconductor, calling the plan "illegal." Cash-strapped Hynix — which has been bailed out several times in the past — said it obtained from creditors a $1.58 billion debt-for-equity swap and a roll over of its $2.5 billion debt by 2006, according to the report. The bailout will anger U.S. and other foreign competitors, which charge that Hynix and other Korean companies have benefited from unfair government subsidies.

Intel’s Springdale chipsets are set to beat Taiwanese competitors to shipment, with small-volume releases as early as the first quarter of 2003 and motherboards based on the chipsets shipping by the second quarter, according to Taiwanese motherboard makers. Taiwanese chipset designers VIA Technologies and Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS) may not enter volume production of their dual-channel DDR400-supporting, 800MHz FSB chipsets until the second quarter. Typically, VIA and SiS enjoy a honeymoon period of profits before Intel launches comparable products, after which increased competition drives down prices.

GTK+OSX has released a native Mac OS X Aqua port of the Linux-based GTK+ open source graphical user interface library. GTK+ (GIMP Toolkit) is a popular widget library supporting graphical applications for Linux. GTK+OSX version 0.1 is an alpha release intended for developers. "This is great news for the Mac OS X developer community," says Macworld UK contributing editor Scott Sheppard. "It means that many popular Linux programs can be ported to run natively with Mac OS X’s Aqua user interface, avoiding the hassle of users having to run an X server."

Samsung Electronics is set to show a prototype 54-inch wide-screen high-definition LCD at CES. The panel, for which mass production plans have yet to be decided, is the largest TFT LCD to be announced by any of the world’s flat-panel makers. It has a resolution of 1,920 pixels by 1,080 pixels, a contrast ratio of 800:1 and it has a 170 degree viewing angle.

Linksys said it has begun shipping a draft-standard 802.11g product in low volume. Initial units went to volume resellers, such as Amazon and Buy.com, the spokeswoman said. Both retailers, however, have yet to offer the products on their Web sites. Linksys said it shipping four 802.11g products: a wireless router at a street price of $149, an access point at a street price of $139, and a PC Card and PCI card, each with a street price of $79.

Hardly anything inside a computer would seem to be more basic, or more necessary, than the processor "clock" — the little crystal oscillator whose rhythmic ticks ultimately regulate everything the computer does. Yet clocks aren’t necessary for the workings of digital devices, and some researchers predict that clock-regulated circuits will increasingly give way to clockless, or asynchronous, circuits. In the early days of computing, both asynchronous and synchronous circuits were used in computers, but the latter came to dominate because they were easier to design, test and debug. Asynchronous circuits can perform faster than synchronous ones, since their components aren’t limited by the pace of clock ticks. And because they draw less power and generate less heat, they are likely to find applications in mobile devices.

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